Interesting Facts About Motorola You Should Know About

First things first, Motorola was founded in 1928, with this fact in mind, its pretty impressive it has lasted in the industry for so long. As one of the pioneer mobile manufacturers, Motorola undoubtedly deserves all the praises and with good reason. Aside from its great smartphones like the Moto G, Moto X and many others, there are plenty of factors that have kept it alive and competitive in the market. Here are a few interesting facts that you might have forgotten or don’t know are associated with Motorola.

Invented car radios

If you at the back of your head, you thought Motorola was a follower, you couldn’t be more wrong.

Motorola is a major historic tech company in mobile communications. The very first car radio was invented by Motorola in 1930. Originally, the device was intended for the police and would later evolve into a two-way communication system.

Walkie-talkies

10 years later, the two-way radios no longer needed a vehicle-attachment to operate. Motorola introduced walkie talkies, which resulted in the discovery of untethered mobile communications.

Pagers

Motorola was on roll in their mobile invention, because soon after Motorola was the first company to launch a pager, in 1956. Referred to as the Handie-Talkie radio pager, the gadget was primarily used in hospitals to transfer messages at a 40km radius.

What about Cellphones?

Samsung and Apple may be ruling the market today, but when we think about innovation or invention, Motorola takes it all. Motorola released the DynaTAC 8000x, the first ever cellphone, in 1983.

Whats interesting is that, it is said that the first cellphone call was made ten years prior. The call made by Martin Cooper, a Motorola employee was to contact AT&T’s Joel Engel, just to inform him that the first cellphone call was being made and not by them.

Why the Motorola name?

As mentioned above, Motorola broke into the innovation business with their first car radio inventions. This als happens to be where the company got their name. The ‘Motor’ is obviously linked to the vehicle part of it, while ‘ola’ is just an ending of names that was popular at the time. Before attaining its Motorola name, the company was known as the Galin Manufacturing Corporation.

First radio company to make it to the moon landing

You’ve probably heard that Neil Armstrong said following the words “One small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind” which was after he became the first human to land on the moon. What you didn’t know is that, Motorola provided the radio transponder that transmitted those words to earth.

Their Production of some of the best-selling phones of all time

In the current mobile market, Motorola seems to be falling behind manufacturers like Samsung in terms of the best selling smartphones, however it does beat Apple’s iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus. The company’s Motorola RAZR was once a giant in the US mobile market and remains a top-selling clamshell handset, selling over 130 million units. On the other hand, the iPhone 6 and the iPhone 6 Plus manage to only reach as far as 100 million, together.

First to incorporate mobile web browsing

You can thank Motorola for the invention of mobile web browsing. This was first seen in the Motorola iDEC i1000 Plus, the original smartphone to include mobile browsing, along with email and alphanumeric characters. It was also useful for making calls, sending messages, sending faxes, serve as a radio and a lot more.

Motorola StarTAC

Motorola StarTAC caused quite a craze when it was unveiled in 1996, as the lightest phone to hit the market. This is actually the initial clamshell phone to be released and weighed only 88grams.

Motorola is currently owned by Lenovo

This is mostly the mobile division. This is something most of us know, but in case you had no idea, Motorola Mobility came as a result of the separation of Motorola Inc. Google then acquired Motorola Mobility for US$12.5 billion, and later resold it to Lenovo back in 2014.
What other interesting Motorola facts have you come to appreciate? Let us know in the comments.

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